122: Chapter 122 Your Equity Will Be Defined by Me

Levi was well aware of this; in fact, he had already prepared a clear "client visit list" for Cassius.

Cassius did not disappoint him.

Early the next morning, as the first ray of sunlight pierced the mist shrouding Silvermoon City, the Imperial Envoy's figure appeared before the mansion of Baron Bartley, the president of the city's largest wool merchant guild.

Levi didn't send anyone to monitor him, nor did he need to.

He simply sat behind his wide black oak desk, listening to Evelyn report on the progress of food and medicine distribution within the city. In his mind, however, he could clearly sketch out every movement and every word Cassius was making at this moment.

It would be nothing more than those tired clichés.

Restoring the glory of the old nobility, guaranteeing the traditional privileges of the merchant guilds, the Emperor's grace, the order of the Empire... such rhetoric was irresistible honey to those who had thrived in the old era.

Levi's fingertips tapped lightly on the desk, producing a rhythmic "knock, knock" sound.

In the empty hall, the sound was exceptionally clear, like the beat of a countdown.

He needed Cassius to contact those people, to incite them, and to make promises.

Like an experienced fisherman, before casting the net, one must always throw down enough bait to churn the water and make the school of fish gather on their own.

"My Lord," Evelyn said, concluding a section of her report, her eyes—always harboring shadows—looking up. "Cassius has already contacted representatives from the seven largest merchant guilds in the city and twelve hereditary knights holding old titles. Several former officers of the City Defense Force are also among those he invited. Intelligence shows they are holding secret meetings."

"Very good, quite efficient." A nearly imperceptible smile touched the corners of Levi's mouth. "It seems our Envoy feels the pressure and has started working overtime."

He pulled a stack of exquisitely designed parchment notes from a drawer.

These notes had been rushed out overnight by the best craftsmen in the Blackstone Territory, featuring complex anti-counterfeit watermarks and the wax seal of the Lord. They looked even more official than Imperial gold coins.

"Send out the word," he said, handing the notes to Evelyn. "Set up a temporary exchange point for the 'Silvermoon City Development Bank' in the square in front of the City Lord's Manor. Dispatch all our scribes there. Tell the people that their days of suffering are over; the Lord is going to distribute assets to them."

Evelyn took the notes, her gaze lingering for a moment on the striking title at the top: "silvermoon restoration bonds."

Half an hour later, a massive bulletin board was erected in the City Lord's Square, with the exchange rules written in the simplest, most understandable language.

Beside it, over a dozen long tables were lined up, with solemn-faced scribes from the Blackstone Territory seated behind them.

The news spread like it had wings, instantly reaching every corner of Silvermoon City.

At first, no one believed it.

The people of this city had been exploited by Valerius for so long, their very marrow sucked dry, and they had just survived an apocalyptic disaster. They held the deepest suspicion toward any "favor" from a ruler.

The first person to walk toward the exchange point was a lame veteran.

His clothes were tattered, and his face was etched with the weariness of time and numbness.

From his coat, he pulled out a crumpled, nearly disintegrating piece of parchment. It was an IOU for three full years of back pay owed to him by Valerius.

He had no hope left; he was simply acting on the mindset of a dying man seeking any cure, wanting to see what kind of trick this new Lord was playing.

"Name, former unit designation, amount owed," the scribe asked in a businesslike manner without looking up.

The veteran tremulously provided the information.

The scribe quickly found the corresponding record in a thick ledger. After verifying it, he took a seal and stamped a heavy "VOID" mark over the IOU.

Then, he pulled out three brand-new "silvermoon restoration bonds" and pushed them toward the veteran along with a small, heavy bag of copper coins.

"According to the Temporary Exchange Act, a debt of one silver coin from the former City Lord can be exchanged for ten credit units of Restoration Bonds. Your debt totals thirty silver coins, which converts to three hundred credit units of bonds. This is your compensation for lost wages and nutrition for today—twenty copper coins, paid by the Lord."

The veteran was stunned.

He looked at the three beautifully printed bonds, then weighed the bag of copper coins in his hand, which emitted the scent of real metal. For the first time, a light of disbelief flickered in his cloudy eyes.

That scrap of paper, which had long been worthless, had actually been traded for something real.

This scene was witnessed clearly by everyone watching in the surroundings.

The crowd began to stir. A second person, then a third... more and more people emerged from their hiding places.

They held all sorts of vouchers: land deeds that had long been abolished, unredeemable commercial notes, and even ancestral identity documents proving their forebears were freemen.

Yesterday, these things were just trash used for starting fires or propping up table legs.

But today, under the rules established by Levi, they had all turned into quantifiable "credit units."

"My house was destroyed in the battle! Here is the deed!" a middle-aged man cried out as he squeezed his way to the table.

"Address verified, original value assessed. Exchange for eight hundred bond units!"

"My family's shop was looted by Valerius's soldiers! Here is the guild's voucher!" a man who looked like a merchant slammed the table in agitation.

"Recorded. Exchange for fifteen hundred bond units based on asset scale! The list of looters will be announced later; you can use the bonds as proof of priority for prosecution!"

The crowd in the square reached a fever pitch.

Like a flood, they surged frantically toward the exchange points.

Despair and numbness faded from their faces, replaced by a morbid fanaticism.

They didn't care what the "bonds" actually were; they only knew that Levi had given them one thing: hope.

A hope that could transform all past losses into future gains.

Levi stood on the second-floor balcony of the City Lord's Manor, overlooking the ocean of fanaticism he had ignited with his own hands.

Ella stood beside him, her brow furrowed as she watched the people scrambling, nearly causing a stampede.

"What exactly are you doing?" she asked, unable to understand. "Trading scraps of paper for other scraps of paper you printed—what's the point? You're just creating chaos out of nothing."

"No, Your Highness, I am not creating chaos; I am reshaping consensus." Levi's voice was calm, as if stating a law of physics. "You see, before yesterday, their consensus was that 'land and gold have value.' But now, their land is gone and their money has become scrap paper. When the old consensus is destroyed, they become a heap of loose sand. And I am establishing a new consensus for them: 'Believe in me, and you can get back everything you lost, and even more.'"

He picked up a sample bond and handed it to Ella.

"This paper is indeed scrap right now. But it represents a promise. I promise that when Silvermoon City restores its prosperity, those who hold this can convert it proportionally into original shares of the 'Silvermoon Co., Ltd.'."

"Shares?" Ella heard another unfamiliar term.

"You can understand it as: those who own shares will become one of the future masters of this city. They can receive dividends proportionally from the money the city earns," Levi explained patiently, like a missionary teaching modern finance to primitive people. "The more bonds they exchange, the more shares they will have in the future. So, they aren't exchanging for scrap paper now; they are using the last remaining values denied by the old era to snap up the future of this city."

Ella stared blankly at the bond in her hand, then looked down at the red-eyed citizens below.

She suddenly understood the terrifying nature of Levi.

He didn't care at all about the support of the old nobility and merchant guilds.

He bypassed the spokespeople of these traditional powers, using a near-cult-like pyramid scheme method to turn the lowest and most numerous people of the city into his most fanatical followers and partners.

From this moment on, anyone attempting to overthrow Levi would not just be attacking an outside Lord, but would be smashing the rice bowls of thousands of commoners in this city and destroying the only hope they had staked everything on.

At dusk, a grand Holy Light blessing ceremony was held in the square.

This was something Levi had specifically "requested" Ella to preside over.

Under the gaze of countless fanatical eyes, Ella once again unfurled those magnificent wings of light.

A rain of sacred golden light fell, purifying the city's water source that had been contaminated during the battle.

Clear spring water gushed from the municipal fountain, and the people erupted in thunderous cheers.

Amidst the cheering crowd, Evelyn's ghost-like subordinates were quietly spreading a new "gospel."

"Did you see? This is the first benefit the Lord has secured for us new shareholders!"

"I heard that Imperial Envoy is teaming up with the old nobles to abolish our bonds and turn our hard-earned money into nothing!"

"What? They dare! Whoever touches my bonds, I'll fight them to the death!"

"We have to unite and protect our property!"

That night, Cassius's residence in the city's embassy district was surrounded by a dense, impenetrable crowd.

These people had no weapons, only torches and the "Restoration Bonds" they had just exchanged.

They held the bonds high, as if waving sacred banners.

"Defend our property!"

"Imperial Envoy, get out of Silvermoon City!"

"Whoever dares to abolish the bonds is an enemy of Silvermoon City!"

The slogans rose wave after wave, merging into a torrent powerful enough to make any authority tremble.

Cassius stood behind the window, his face ashen as he looked at the faces outside, distorted by anger and excitement.

The Imperial laws he took pride in, the Emperor's decree in his hand—at this moment, they seemed so pale and powerless.

He discovered with horror that in just one day, he had gone from being a judge representing the Imperial will to a public enemy trying to steal the wealth of the city's entire population.

He was no longer facing Levi alone, but an entire city held hostage by financial fanaticism.

He had lost; on the level of political maneuvering, he had been utterly defeated.

Late at night, in the secret room of Cassius's residence, a beam of magical light shot into the sky, quickly vanishing into the night.

It was an emergency transmission to the Imperial Capital.

In this urgent secret report, Cassius desperately deleted all accusations regarding "treason" and "defiance of decrees."

Those charges were meaningless in the face of this "vast ocean of people."

In their place, he used a more malicious and precise definition.

"...The target, Levi Byron, has used unheard-of commercial trickery to bewitch the people and illegally raise assets. His actions have severely disrupted the Imperial financial order and shaken the foundation of the state. This is not a political rebellion, but a malignant cancerous growth of commercial fraud. If not cleared by thunderous means, his so-called 'bonds' will likely spread through the Empire like a plague, causing endless future trouble. I implore Your Majesty to quickly dispatch the Iron-Blood Legion to thoroughly eradicate this scoundrel in the name of 'maintaining market order'!"

At the end of the secret report, he attached a magical rubbing of a "Silvermoon Restoration Bond" that he had bought from a citizen at a great cost.

He believed that when the greedy nobles of the council and the Imperial Finance Ministers saw this exquisitely structured, logically self-consistent, yet completely uncontrollable financial note, the fear they would feel would far exceed that of a border military rebellion.

Because what Levi was touching was not the Emperor's authority, but their purses.

That was the true lifeblood of the Empire.